Educational Media Reviews Online

Judith, the subject of this documentary short, is not what you first think of when you picture a street vendor, staple of the New York City landscape. Her pushcart is not large and she doesn’t work in the busiest section of the city selling hotdogs. Hers is a repurposed shopping cart filled with coolers and thermoses.

Pirani formerly worked with immigrant rights organizations and labor unions. She also taught at CUNY’s Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies. She could not have picked a more sympathetic subject. Judith encompasses so much struggle. You meet Judith on the sidewalk at 3:20 am where she’s preparing breakfast. She came to the U.S. to escape domestic violence and began street vending because of the flexibility it gave her as a single mother. Judith sells on the streets, where she often endures physical and emotional threats from police and other vendors. When she’s not food vending, she works to unionize other immigrant street vendors as part of VAMOS Unidos and stages protests. Judith is easy to root for.

The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. The DVD itself is no-frills. There’s no navigational menu or extras and the short plays immediately. The length makes the documentary good for the classroom and a jumping off point for group discussion. Judith is recommended for school, public, and academic library collections.

Awards

• Winner, Best Documentary, Short Workers Unite Film Festival
• Honorable Mention, Best Director, Documentary Short, Queens World Film Festival